CHRISTOPHER, IL (WSIL) -- When you go to the hospital or your doctor's office, you assume there will be enough nurses to treat you. A nationwide staffing shortage that started during the COVID pandemic is challenging that.
Some rural, local hospitals have been hit especially hard. They serve tight-knit communities and have a small staff to begin with.
Christopher Rural Public Health says they've been successful in keeping and retaining the nursing staff they have.
An X-ray tech runs the machine at Christopher Rural Health's clinic in Christopher, IL.
“That's our biggest asset is our staff,� says Kim Mitroka, the President and CEO of Christopher Rural Health Planning Corporation. “If we don't have them we can't provide the services that we do.�
Right now Christopher Rural Health Planning Corporation has 13 clinics in Southern Illinois with plans to open more. They were able to keep their doors open, even in the height of the pandemic.
“It was a lot, it was a lot to take in but the staff were really good about it,� says Mitroka.
Mitroka says they were doing COVID tests in the parking lot during the pandemic and would test between 1,200 and 1,500 people every week. Mitroka says the difference with Christopher Rural Health is they were able to follow up with their patients who tested positive.
“What we do is so much more rewarding in different ways, I can't imagine doing a job where you can't see in some way that you've helped somebody,� says Mitroka. “You can't ever go home from here and think that you haven't helped somebody, that you haven't touched their life in some way.
CEO and President of Christopher Rural Health Planning Corporation talks about keeping their 13 southern Illinois clinics staffed.
I think that that's a big bonus, really, in doing a job is to know that you left that day and you made a difference in somebody else's life.�
We asked Mitroka whether they’ve had any problems with burnout or with people leaving because of the added stress.Ìý
“We've talked to some who say they just can't handle it, they're burnt out, they need to do something different,� Mitroka says. “We've lost people, we've gotten people back who have come back and said, 'You know, it was not cut out for me, this is where I need to be,'" she adds.
Christopher Rural Health Clinics are closed evenings, weekends and holidays. Mitroka thinks that plays to their advantage when it comes to keeping their staff. She says that doesn’t mean they’re immune to problems created by nursing shortages.
Lab equipment at Christopher Rural Health's clinic in Christopher, IL.
“We don't get as many nursing applications as we do for other positions,� she explains. She goes on to say a lot of nursing applicants are recruited to be travel nurses. They’re paid more because they have to travel from hospital to hospital.
“It's very hard to pass up those high wages if you can manage it with your family life,� says Mitroka. “We've had to compete with that but I also think they have to weigh that life balance of, 'I'm home in the evening, I'm off on weekends.'"
A study from the University of Illinois Chicago says Illinois is one the most ‘in need� states when it comes to how many nurses there are to how many patients there are. That study says there are 12 nurses for every 1,000 patients.
"We've got a serious challenge all across our state,â€� says Senator Dick Durbin (D) of Illinois. He says that’s why he introduced the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act.Ìý
It creates a temporary stopgap designed to address the nationwide shortage of doctors and nurses.
“The idea is to start building a new bench of men and women who can step in and make sure that our hospitals stay open, that professional healthcare is affordable, that our clinics are open as well, we've got to really focus on this,� explains Senator Durbin.
"I'm very worried about it because these men and women have put in hours and days and weeks and months with COVID-19 and many of them are burnt out and looking for relaxation, maybe some of them are even looking for retirement,� he continues.
Right now he says his bill has bipartisan support.
He also says he’s worried having to rely on travel nurses could be detrimental for hospitals in the long term.
"Their budgets get busted with expenses they hadn't anticipated and it makes it difficult to keep these clinics and hospitals functioning like we want them to," he says.
The Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act also sets aside scholarship funds to help men and women who want to go into the healthcare field. Senator Durbin says he’s working with committees and hospital administrators to further his legislation.
Senator Durbin’s proposal is similar to House Bill 2133 in Missouri, introduced by Herman Morse (R). It creates tax breaks for smaller hospitals in counties with less than 35,000 people. A copy of the bill is attached to this article.
Mitroka says they’ve never had to turn a patient away because there wasn’t adequate staff to care for them.
“I don't think I could sleep at night knowing we had to turn someone away because we didn't have coverage,� she says.
Christopher Rural Health Planning Corporation doesn’t have sign-on bonuses for new nurses. Instead, they have retention bonuses, so the longer someone works with them, the more money they’re able to earn.
A lab tech works on patient samples at Christopher Rural Health's clinic in Christopher, IL.
“Everything that we get goes back to the staff and the patients and that's an approach I think is a better one, because we invest back in them,� she says.
Cameron Yosanovich is a Family Nurse Practitioner at the Christopher clinic. He worked throughout the pandemic and was on hand to test patients.
“Those days were long and tedious,â€� says Yosanovich.Ìý “But at all times I was always happy and proud to be offering the services that we had here and making sure all of our patients are staying safe and healthy and staying on top of their healthcare.â€�
Yosanovich now works overnights from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. He tells News 3 he’s a Southern Illinois native and happy to be working in his hometown, even if it means some longer shifts and long days.
Family Nurse Practitioner Cameron Yosanovich talks about working through the pandemic at Christopher Rural Health Planning Corporation's clinic in Christopher, IL.
“Working in the community that I live in, working to improve health and all the other things that go along with that are really rewarding so I enjoy it,� he says. “Absolutely.�
I would like to thank News 3 Photojournalist Paul Wilcoxen for his help with this story.
